Missing 3-year-old boy found dead inside steel trunk at relative’s home
A three-year-old boy who was visiting his maternal grandparents’ house in Bhanota village of Surajpur was found dead in a steel trunk of the house, just hours after he was reported missing on Tuesday afternoon.
The victim Bhavyansh was a resident of Sirsa village in Greater Noida. His mother and he had gone to Bhanota village, 10 kms away, last week.
Sewaram, the victim’s grandfather, said, “The child had gone missing while playing in the afternoon. We launched a search but failed to trace him. We then informed police at 1:30pm about the incident.”
Harish Chander, deputy commissioner of police, Noida Central, said that a team from Surajpur police station reached the spot and launched a search for the child. “The police team searched the house and the neighbourhood but could not find the child. Police the registered a case on the grandfather’s complaint against unknown persons under Section 363 (abduction) of the Indian penal code (IPC),” he said.
Chander said that at around 9:30pm, someone informed the police that the boy was found inside a steel trunk on the first floor of the same two-storey house. “The police swiftly reached the spot and found the boy wrapped in a cloth inside the box in his maternal uncle’s room,” he said. Bhavyansh was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.
“Prima facie, it is unlikely that the boy himself fell in the box. The fact that he was wrapped in a cloth also casts suspicion. We have questioned the family members and we suspect role of some insiders in the crime,” Chander said.
Pradeep Tripathi, SHO Surajpur police station said that the boy had no visible injury on his face or body. “The post-mortem report revealed that the body died due to suffocation. We are interrogating the child’s two maternal uncles – Amit and Sumit – in this case. We will take actions based on evidence,” he said. No one was arrested till the filing of this report. Amit was the first to find the body, police said.
The child’s maternal uncles refused to comment on the issue.